Prior art burner assemblies, and particularly prior art sealed gas burner assemblies have not been entirely satisfactory. It is desirable to provide "sealed burners" on cooking ranges. A primary requirement in the design of sealed burners is the prevention of liquid or other spills from leaking into the burner box interior. It is, therefore, common practice within the industry to provide "pan seals" to prevent leakage of spills into the burner box interior. The seal is usually either a closed loop, physically joined at its extremities, or a non-contiguous seal, unjoined at its extremities. Typically, the pan seals are loosely retained below and along the perimeter of the burner pan. The loose application may be at the perimeter of the burner pan itself or at the perimeter of the opening of the metallic or glass range top in which the burner pan is located.
Because of the loose application of the seal, sealed burner pans typically require a perimetral flange to align and retain the seal. Unfortunately, the perimetral flange increases the tooling expense and therefore the cost of the burner pan. Also, in conventional burner pans, there is a need for good porcelain coverage and good porcelain adherence at the circumference of the burner pan to avoid corrosion and degradation of appearances. The presence of a perimetral flange increases the difficulty of obtaining and maintaining the porcelain enamel coating of the burner pan. A further problem is heat transfer between the burner and grate and seal, particularly with sealed gas burners.
Another problem associated with conventional burner assemblies is the "clunk" sound made when the burner grates are put down on the burner pan and rangetop, which is an irritant to consumers. The invention addresses these problems and others, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the drawings and description that follows.